A New Chestplate!
Pile-Up stands at his ussual lab station, piles of armor plates sitting in the 'to recycle' section, whilst a number of what looks like... jury rigged 'stitching' machines are being prepped, some sort of clearish resin like material being poured into a holding tank. Anything being done, of course, will draw the attention of one engineer who has her stuff packed for a later trip... but is otherwise occupied with her research for now. Whirligig lifts her head to peek over at what Pile-Up is up to, optics flickering a couple of time in semblance of blinking in curiosity. Pile-Up mutters and murmurs to himself as he also sets to tapping keys on a... well a control panel made from calculator buttons, checking a few dials and a pair of readouts whilst the weird resin empties into the afore mentioned tank. Sneaking around, Whirligig pops over to the side... and watches. Because anywhere that science or engineering is being done, she has a decided interest. Probably because it's the only thing that can hold her attention span for more than two seconds. An automated arm picks up a fresh armor panel, sliding it into place. Pile-Up then paces before it, apparently not sure what is going to happen, not yet aware of the sneaky sneaky whirligig. Opening a panel on his arm, he taps away at something, pressing his lips together. After a few minutes, Whirligig's curiosity gets the better of her. If she just sits there and doesn't ask /any/ questions for much longer, she feels she very well may burst. "Whatcha workin' on?" Pile-Up turns, one optic squinting a bit. "Pile-Tech Industries R&D! We build better armor, or at least we try to!" frowning as he looks to the pile of failed experiments. "But perhaps today is the day! For I feel pretty, oh so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and wise!" Whirligig claps her hands together cheerfully. "That's awesome!" she chirps, propellers spinning. "I'm sure you can do it! It just takes hard work and perserverance. So y'just gotta keep goin' at it. and if you need any help or parts, I know my way around in here pretty well." Pile-Up nods his head sagely, pointing "Well if you wanna pull levers the moment they light up..." moving back towards the machine. Immediately, Whirligig snaps off a salute. "I'm on it!" And there she goes, ready to do exactly as she's told, the movement making her tail wag. Pile-Up mrmmms and moves before the machine, prepping to hit a button. "Give my creation... LIFE!" the sewing machines turning on full power as they're fed the resin material, watching it all just chug along, the needles moving at blurr-esque speeds across the front of the plate, watching whilst allowed to ignore the levers that Whirli opted to pull. Whirligig keeps up with pulling the levers that're needing pulling, which is a fun and easy job for someone who is easily distracted by shiny things. Whenever one lights up, she's right on it! It's hard for her to ignore, after all. Pile-Up moves around, watching the plate, eyes narrowed now, checking the work via microscopes, "Yes... yes shall it vurk? Shall it VURK?!" giggling a bit too creepily as he rubs his hands together. Strangely enough, Whirligig doesn't seem at all bothered by the giggling. She's been known to giggle herself, when the mood strikes. She just keeps doing what she's doing, occasionally pausing to flex her hands, but never once missing a lever! Pile-Up keeps up his work, stepping back, not daring to interpose himself between gig and levers, grinning when the machine hisses to a halt with the last of them. Inching towards the armor slab as its pulled by the machine by the same auto-arm Whirligig makes a curious sound as soon as the levers stop lighting up, peeking over toward what has been created. She's wondering what Pile-Up is so busily making in here, her propellers spinning and her tail wagging with obvious anticipation of finding out what the deal is. Pile-Up nods sagely as he picks up the plate, and three others like it, exiting the machine. 'Strapping' them to his chest, so to speak, now before moving to a part of the lab with a few forcefields raised, motioning to Gig and a few weapons on a lab table. "Alright now... HIT ME!" At first, Whirligig's expression is blank. She looks at a laser rifle, back at Pile-Up, at the laser rifle again... then shrugs and picks it up. "Oooookay, if you say so..." One optic shuttered, she pops off a shot! Ahh yes, coherrant light, excellent for the trial run. Bracing himself now with the blast hurtling towards him, there is a split second where he ponders... all the previous experiments have failed, though the latest of failures was the thirty nine line stitching... this one is multiplied seven fold... It could work... It could hurt... or it could be a complete wash. Eyes squinting shut, he waits for the hit to come, the plates on his torso lighting up like a christmas tree as the crystaline matrix does its work as an energy diffuser, the blast washing over like water... and the flexability soaking up enough that he's only stumbled back with a slight burn on his chest. Optics still shut tight, he calls out. "Am I alive?" "Better than alive, you're practically unscathed!" Whirligig cries, tossing her hands in the air, despite the fact that one is still holding a laser rifle. "That was awesome! A working shield generator! Am I right?" Tail wag. Pile-Up shakes his head "Nono! Pile-Industries has created a micro-weave crystaline matrix absorbtion system to deflect kinetic and energy weaponry! Call now, supplies limited!" "/Wow/." The engineer is genuinely intrigued, and amazed. Grinning, Whirligig scoots close to take a look. "That really /is/ handy, isn't it? Great job on the design, too!" Pile-Up flexes a bit "Excuse me... have you seen my beachball?" bringing his arms down in a 'round' flex, grinning. Whirligig giggles, one hand over her mouth. A few days spent on Junk has her at least familiar with Junkion tendancies, so she just plays along with a cheerful quip of, "I'm afraid I have not, sir." Pile-Up does an arm pump point "It mighta gone that way... its m'beach ball.. s'bout that big!" doing the round flex again. "Now for mass production!" grinning all... evil... for some reason. Another giggle as Whirligig heads in the direction Pile-Up pointed, wondering what he may be referring to with the beach ball comment. And she's really paying attention! "Hmm..." Still not disturbed yet!